


Into This Mess

by crimsontheory



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Car Sex, Death, Detective Harry, Detective Louis, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, I feel like I'm forgetting something, I'm terrible at tagging I'm sorry, Light Angst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Murder, Semi-Public Sex, Serial Killers, Smut, it's only five years though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 05:57:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14888927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crimsontheory/pseuds/crimsontheory
Summary: The first day of Louis’ promotion is going well, far better than he expected. That is until his new partner shows up, who just so happens to be the guy who stumbled half-dressed out of his flat that same morning.Or the enemies to lovers detective AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MileHighLarry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MileHighLarry/gifts).



> Hiiiiii. I wrote the very first scene of this fic as soon as I received my prompts and then I wrote the rest of this in about a month. Even though it stressed me the hell out to write this because it's a little out of my comfort zone, I still really enjoyed it!
> 
> MileHighLarry, I loved every one of your prompts so much. I'm definitely not a good enough writer to have taken on any of them, but this is the one I felt the comfiest with. I know you wanted a Lethal Weapon AU, but I've never seen that, so I just went with old detective gets new detective as a partner enemies to lovers kind of thing. Hopefully, it's okay and you like it! 
> 
> The only thing I know about police/detectives is from TV, movies, and of course, the always reliable Google. I apologize for any inaccuracies, this is purely fiction. 
> 
> A little shoutout to Sonja for reading this over for me. You are a doll <3
> 
> Title is taken from The Middle by Zedd & Maren Morris because I always tend to take my titles from songs I'm currently obsessed with.

The pounding in his head is _incessant_. He hasn’t even opened his eyes yet because he knows it’ll only get worse once he does, but he needs to get ready for work. The one fucking night Louis decides to go out, and he gets plastered. 

Louis doesn’t drink, except for the occasional glass of wine or beer, but that doesn’t happen very often and he never has more than two. Louis also doesn’t go out. Maybe he’ll have dinner with family or friends and he might even go see a film if he’s feeling extra daring, but otherwise, he stays in for the most part. 

Most people would say Louis is married to his job, and well, they aren’t wrong. He is one hundred and fifty percent dedicated to his job and he doesn’t let anything get in his way. He loves his job and he’s damn fucking good at it too. 

Last night was his old partner’s retirement party, so he kind of _had_ to go. He was only planning on staying for an hour or two, have a couple of beers and then call it an early night. But one pint turned into five which turned into tequila shots which turned into taking home the cute guy who was eyeing him up across the pub the whole night. 

One thing Louis does not do under any circumstances, is date. That’s the kind of distraction from his career that he really doesn’t need. He hasn’t been in a serious relationship for almost six years now and he _definitely_ doesn’t do one night stands, hasn’t since uni and even then it was a rarity. There was just something about the guy at the pub last night that lured Louis in. 

The pounding in his head _does_ get worse when he opens his eyes, but it quickly ebbs away when he takes in the naked back of the guy he took home still fast asleep next to him. God, Louis doesn’t even remember his name, probably didn’t even bother to learn it to be honest, but he does remember how soft the guy’s skin felt underneath his fingertips and his mouth and the raspy moans that fell from his lips. Louis _definitely_ remembers that. 

He reaches out to trail his fingers down the guy’s side and he stirs, turning over to face Louis. “Good morning,” he whispers, a smile spreading on his face. That smile alone could end wars, that’s probably what drew Louis in to begin with. He’s always been a sucker for a man with a nice smile. 

“Good morning,” Louis greets back. “I was just about to hop in the shower before work and was wondering if you wanted to join me.” What is he saying? Louis doesn’t do these things. 

The other man leans in, probably going for a kiss that Louis will eagerly respond to, but then he stops, his eyes widening with panic. “Shit,” he says, scrambling out of the bed, picking up his discarded clothes from Louis’ bedroom floor. “What time is it?”

Louis quirks an eyebrow at him but glances at his nightstand where his phone is lying with the time displayed on the screen. “It’s half five.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he hisses under his breath, shoving his leg into his jeans. “It’s my first day at my new job and I’m going to be late.”

“Why did you go out drinking the night before your new job?” Louis questions, stifling a laugh as the guy trips while putting his other leg into his jeans. 

“I was nervous about it and just wanted to blow off some steam,” he turns to face Louis and his face gets soft. “You weren’t part of the plan, but I couldn’t say no.”

Louis ignores the weird fluttering those words ignite in his belly. After the guy has finished dressing he walks over to Louis’ side of the bed and places a kiss on his forehead. “I had a great time last night. Hopefully, I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, hopefully,” Louis says, but the guy is already out of the room. 

\--

After a quick shower and an even quicker breakfast, Louis is walking into the station with a very large cup of coffee in his hand. He bypasses the lift, opting to take the stairs instead. He needs to keep moving and keep his mind off the still dull throbbing in his head. He hasn’t had a hangover this bad in years, and he’s having a little trouble remembering how to deal with it.

Once he makes it to the third floor, he turns right at the top of the stairs and then right again, weaving his way through the cubicles to the opposite side of the room. The cacophony of voices and typing on keyboards and the rolling of wheely chairs bounces off of the walls making it seem twice as loud as it actually is.

Louis stops at the closed door that is directly across from his old desk. He gives the now empty desk one last longing look before pulling out the key from his pocket that he received from the chief yesterday and uses it to unlock his brand new office. His own office, all to himself. He’s beyond thrilled.

For a little over a month, Louis has known about his old partner’s retirement and that he would be promoted to that position as Detective Inspector. He should be nervous having a brand new job title, but he’s not, he’s more excited than anything. He’s been working towards this for years now and he can’t wait to get started.

Stepping inside the office, Louis flicks on the light and sets his coffee cup down on his desk. It’s not much of anything really, small yet efficient and just enough space for Louis. A large wooden desk is placed right in the center of the room with a bookshelf on one wall and a selection of filing cabinets against the other.

He stayed behind last night after work—which caused him to be a little late to the retirement party—to unpack all his things and set up his new office. He placed the pathetic looking plant his mum bought him just for this occasion atop one of the filing cabinets, hung all of his uni and work certificates on the wall, and put the few framed pictures of his family around his desk.

He loves that he has his own office, his own space, separate from the rest of the bullpen. Not too separate though seeing as two of the four walls are entirely made up of glass. The one behind his desk has floor to ceiling windows that overlook the car park; definitely not the most glamorous of views, but Louis knows he won’t be spending much time gazing out the windows anyway.

The wall in front of his desk is also floor to ceiling windows so he can still see out into the rest of the office. His old desk that is just outside the door is still unoccupied and Louis frowns. He thought for certain that his new partner, taking his old position as Detective Sergeant, would have been here before him. Nonetheless, he’s looking forward to meeting them.

He slides into the chair behind his desk and fires up his computer, typing in his username and password. He has a lot of paperwork to get done today and he still needs to transfer over all his old case files, so he needs to get started as soon as possible. 

Around twenty minutes later, after Louis has transferred the majority of his files there’s a knock on his door. He glances up from the computer screen to see the chief entering his office with someone else trailing close behind him. 

“Tomlinson,” the chief greets warmly. “I see you’ve settled in quite nicely.”

“Yes sir,” Louis replies, standing up from his chair and walking around the other side of his desk. “I stayed late last night to set everything up.”

“Very well. Are you ready to meet your new partner?” Louis nods, trying to peek around the chief to get a glimpse at whoever is still awkwardly standing behind him. “This is Harry Styles, he’s come all the way here from Cheshire.” He says that like he’s come from another country and not somewhere that’s only a few hours away. 

There’s something about that name though that sounds so familiar to Louis, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. And that’s when the person finally steps out into the room and Louis gets a good look at his new partner. His stomach drops along with his jaw, because that’s the guy from last night. The guy Louis took home with him. The guy Louis slept with.

“Hi, I’m Harry,” he introduces himself like the chief didn’t just do it for him seconds earlier. He extends his hand for Louis to shake and Louis just stares at it for a moment, because what the hell, before he shakes his head and gets his wits about him and places his hand in Harry’s. 

“Louis,” he replies dumbly because he _knows_ Harry already knows his name.

There’s a smirk playing on Harry’s lips, the same lips that were against Louis’ neck and his chest and pretty much every other inch of Louis body last night. The large hand he’s still awkwardly shaking is the same hand that was pulling at his hair and scratching along his back.

Suddenly he’s flooded with the memories. They’re a bit fuzzy from the alcohol but he gets flashes of clothes falling to the floor of his bedroom, sheets tangled around their legs, and flushed skin. They’re the memories he’s been trying to suppress all morning. He was doing a damn good job at it too until now.

What are the fucking odds that in a city this big, his new partner is his one night stand from last night? Even if the sex was great, like mind-blowing best sex of his life great, he was hoping to forget about it and the guy and move on with his life. No such luck now. He’s stuck with this guy as his new partner for who knows how long.

The chief leaves them alone after saying that he wants to give them some time to get to know each other. Louis rolls his eyes at that, he feels like he already knows Harry way more than he would like. Well, knows his body at least.

“You know,” Harry says, once the chief leaves the room and it’s just the two of them. He steps further into Louis’ space and Louis takes a defensive step back, walking around the desk to his chair. “When I told you this morning that I hoped I’d see you again, I didn’t think it would be this soon.” He chuckles, a deep dimple popping into his left cheek.

“Yeah well, we’ve got work to do. Your desk is out there,” he points to the empty desk just outside his office that he’s been staring at all morning. He’s been picturing literally anyone in the world other than Harry sitting there.

Louis says it a little too harshly and he feels momentarily guilty for the hurt look that flashes across Harry’s face. He doesn’t do this though. He doesn’t do one night stands, he doesn’t do relationships and he definitely doesn’t get involved with people he works with. He’s crossed all those lines in a matter of one night and he needs to make sure that Harry understands that, understands that what happened between them was a colossal mistake and something like that will never, ever happen again.

As he watches Harry shuffle out of his office and to his desk, Louis can’t help but think how incredibly beautiful Harry is, even more beautiful than Louis remembered. Maybe it’s because it isn’t clouded by the alcohol he had last night or the groggy hangover from earlier this morning. But there’s one thing Louis knows for certain; Harry is the most beautiful man he has ever seen.

\--

It’s late. Louis’ not quite sure just how late it really is, but it must be nearing one in the morning by now. He’s one of the only few people still left in the office, most of them heading home hours ago. He’s had a lot more paperwork to do than he originally thought and it’s taken him quite a while to get it done. Granted, he did get called out on a couple small cases and attended a meeting or two.

It’s normal for him to be at this office this late though; he’s always preferred being at work and making good use of his time instead of being at home doing nothing. He’s at the station or out working a case more than he’s ever at home. 

Harry’s also one of the people still left even though Louis told him to go home hours ago, but Harry flat out refused. Louis can see him through the glass wall of his office, staring at his computer screen, very obviously trying not to fall asleep, the glow from the screen the only thing illuminating his face. 

That’s also something that has distracted Louis from his paperwork today; Harry. All Louis had to do to see Harry was glance up from his desk because Harry’s desk is literally _right there_. The number of times Louis caught himself staring is alarming. Maybe if Harry wasn’t so pretty or annoyingly charming, he wouldn’t be so damn distracting.

All of the coworkers Harry has met are already wrapped around his finger. His obscenely long finger that looks ridiculous with the amount of jewelry he wears on his hands. Who needs to wear that many rings anyway? What’s the point?

The sound of his phone ringing startles him. He reaches for his cell phone before his sleep-deprived brain can catch up to him and let him know that it’s his office phone that is ringing. His office phone only rings for one reason; he has a case.

Louis jots down the address and all the other information in his cell phone. It sounds like this is going to be a big one. He switches off his computer and grabs his jacket from off the back of his chair before turning off the light and stepping out of his office.

Harry is now fast asleep, his head resting on his desk. Louis doesn’t know why he didn’t go home earlier when Louis said he could. Surely, it’d be more comfortable for him to sleep in his bed instead of at his desk.

“Wake up, Styles,” Louis whisper-shouts, trying to be mindful of everyone still in the office. He slams his hand down on the surface of Harry’s desk. “You’ve got your first big London case, let’s go.”

Harry sleepily follows Louis out to his car and climbs into the passenger’s seat, promptly falling asleep. Louis snorts and rolls his eyes as he starts the car. It doesn’t take them long to reach their destination, due to the early hour, and they’re quickly pulling up behind a line of police cars. Louis knows this place, remembers being called out here for disturbances quite frequently when he was just a deputy.

He shoves Harry to wake him up and let him know they’ve arrived. They approach the police tape and Louis flashes his badge to the officer on guard and he lifts the tape up to allow them through. 

“What’ve we got?” Louis asks one of the officers already on the scene. 

“She’s just a Jane Doe at the moment, there’s no ID on her. Her time of death was around two hours ago,” the officer explains. “A couple of girls leaving the club across the street called it in.”

“Are those girls still here?” Louis questions, taking the gloves that are offered to him and slipping them on his hands.

“Yeah,” the officer says. “We have someone taking their statement right now.”

Louis nods and excuses himself to examine the body. The first thing he notices is how she’s positioned. Her hands are linked and lying atop her stomach and her ankles are crossed. Her clothes are in pristine condition; clean and unwrinkled. In fact, they look brand new, like they’ve never been worn until now. 

There’s no dirt or skin underneath her fingernails and there are no evident signs of a struggle anywhere in the alley. She didn’t die here, she was placed here.

The sound of a camera shutter going off comes from Louis’ left. He frowns because the only person on Louis’ left side is Harry. Honestly, he’d completely forgotten about Harry until just now. He’s surprised he isn't curled up behind the dumpster fast asleep.

Louis turns from where he’s still crouching down next to the body to see Harry snapping pictures with his phone. “What are you doing?”

Harry whips his head up from his phone and looks at Louis like he was just caught sticking his hand in the biscuit jar after his mum told him not to. “Just taking some pictures. You know, for evidence or whatever.”

“It’s against company policy to have case photos on your personal cell phone. You could get fired for that.” That’s a lie, there’s no rule against taking pictures on your phone. Louis has an entirely separate album in his camera roll specifically for case photos. He just said that to see the surprised look on Harry’s face and to see him quickly scramble to get his phone back into his pocket. “Plus, there are people specifically for that,” he nods towards the two people off to the side with giant cameras hanging around their necks. “It’s their literal job to take the pictures for us.”

“Oh, right. Of course,” Harry sucks his bottom lip into his mouth. “It doesn't really matter anyway. I already have it figured out. Case closed.”

“What?” Louis says, his eyebrows raising. He stands up so he can face Harry fully. 

Harry shrugs and gestures towards the body. “It was obviously the boyfriend.”

“How is that obvious?” Louis asks, quirking an eyebrow. “You barely even looked at the body. We don’t even know her name yet so how could you possibly know she even had a boyfriend?”

Harry scrunches up his forehead. He looks stumped for a moment like he knows he’s just been talking out his arse and he’s been called out for it, but his features quickly morph into something more serious. “Well, she’s in an alleyway across the street from a very popular nightclub. She’s been strangled due to the finger-shaped bruises around her neck,” Louis nods, he noticed those too so that proves that Harry at least looked at the body. “So her and her boyfriend were inside the club, they got into a fight and took it outside, but things went a little too far. Alas, dead girl in the alley. We had a case very similar to this back in Cheshire.”

Louis rolls his eyes and places a hand on his hip. That is the most fucking ridiculous thing he had ever heard. First off; this isn’t the small town in Cheshire that Harry is used to, this is London and things are a lot different here. And second; while it could be possible that is exactly what happened, Louis is fairly certain that it’s not based on the evidence he’s already found that Harry obviously paid no attention to.

“I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that,” Louis says. “At least wait until after the autopsy has been done before you start jumping to crazy conclusions.”

Louis sees Harry’s lips turn down in a pout as he turns and walks away.

\--

It’s almost four in the morning and Louis is sitting in a booth opposite Harry at a twenty-four-seven diner. Louis talked the waitress into leaving the entire coffee pot at their table and since they’re the only ones in the diner at the moment, she was very easily persuaded. He needed the entire pot because that’s exactly how much coffee he plans on drinking right now. 

Harry is eating waffles—he eats like a fucking cow, sticking out his entire tongue before he takes a bite—while Louis looks over their case file. There’s isn’t much seeing as how they only discovered the body a few hours ago and the autopsy has yet to be finished. They had to call and wake up the medical examiner so he could come in to perform the autopsy. He is very grumpy when his sleep gets interrupted, and Louis is incredibly glad that he wasn’t the one who had to make that phone call.

“Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat?” Harry asks him without bothering to swallow the bite of waffle in his mouth first. “I’ll pay.”

“I’m perfectly capable of buying my own food Harold,” Louis responds, barely glancing up from the case file lying in front of him.

“I never said you weren’t,” Harry says, the tiniest bit of venom evident in his voice. “I was just offering to get you something. It’s called being nice.”

Louis scoffs and rolls his eyes turning his attention back to the files. 

“Have I done something wrong?” Harry inquires. “You’ve been awfully cold to me ever since I first walked into your office. I thought things went pretty well last night—or, fuck, the night before last. I haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours so everything is bleeding together. I had a really good time and it seemed you did too but maybe I’m wrong.” 

Louis sighs and closes the case file. He assumed this conversation was going to come up at some point, but he was keeping his fingers crossed that he wouldn’t have to talk about it. He picks up his coffee mug and takes a sip before addressing Harry. “Look, what happened between us was a mistake. A _huge_ mistake.” There’s a look of confusion and hurt on Harry’s face, but Louis ignores it and pushes through.

“I don’t do things like that. I was drunk, which is also something I don’t do, so I wasn’t thinking straight. I especially don’t get involved with people I work with. It’s something that is never going to happen again and I would really appreciate it if you forget about it and don’t ever bring it up again.” 

Harry blinks in response. There’s a very minuscule quiver of his jaw that Louis just barely catches sight off before Harry is sliding out of the booth and walking right out of the diner. Well, that went well.

\--

“This is an interesting one,” Niall says the second Louis pushes through the double doors into the morgue. It’s always so damn cold in here. Like he gets it, but he also hates it. He _hates_ being cold, it just makes him grumpy. 

Niall is the police department’s medical examiner. He’s worked here for almost the same amount of time as Louis. There was an older lady that was the medical examiner for the first few months after Louis started this job and he absolutely despised her. She was the grouchiest, snobbiest person Louis has ever met and he was ecstatic the day she retired.

He hit it off with Niall right from the start and they’ve become really good friends over the years. Louis would probably say that Niall is his closest friend. He’s definitely the only person here who knows anything about Louis’ personal life; he keeps that shit locked down tight. Whenever Louis makes the time to do something outside of work, it’s usually with Niall.

“How so?” Louis asks, coming to a stop on the opposite side of the metal table from Niall, the body of their victim lying on said table.

“Kind of boring, to be honest, but still a little interesting,” Niall shrugs as he flips open his chart. “Cause of death is asphyxiation by strangulation evident by the bruising around her neck,” he uses the end of his pen to point to the bruises. Louis nods along because he figured as much. “No signs of sexual assault, but there are signs of possible physical assault; she has two broken ribs. And now, to the interesting part—”

Before Niall can continue, the doors slam open and there stands a very frazzled looking Harry. Louis sighs, he hasn’t seen Harry since he stormed out of the diner a few hours ago and Louis was hoping that he had finally gone home for the day. Or evening. Or something. He’s lost all sense of time by now. That pretty normal for him when he’s working a case though.

“So sorry I’m late,” Harry says, breathless. 

Louis rolls his eyes—Harry has been causing him to roll his eyes a lot more frequently than he’s used to—and turns back to Niall. “Niall Horan; medical examiner, meet Harry Styles; my new partner.”

Harry grins and extends his arm to shake Niall’s hand, but that arm just hangs in the air awkwardly when he realizes that Niall is wearing his blue rubber gloves and probably shouldn’t be shaking hands right now. 

“ _This_ is the new partner?” Niall asks with a smirk and a raised brow. He uses his pen to point at Harry and completely ignores the fact that Harry just tried to shake his hand.

So Louis may have mentioned his annoyingly frustrating new partner to Niall and Niall immediately accused Louis of having the hots for Harry. Which couldn’t be any further from the truth.

Yeah, so maybe Harry is pretty or whatever and maybe they’ve slept together—which Niall doesn’t know about because Louis would never hear the end of it—but that doesn’t mean that Louis has feelings for Harry. He shivers just thinking about it. Louis doesn’t _do_ feelings. 

“Yes, Niall,” Louis says exasperatedly. “Now get on to the interesting bit please.”

Niall doesn’t get to it just yet because he has to fill Harry in on everything he missed, so Louis just stands by with his arms crossed listening to all the information he’s already heard.

“Okay so,” Niall finally explains. “Her stomach contents were entirely empty; except for this.” He takes a small silver bowl from another table and hands it to Louis. 

Louis looks inside the bowel and furrows his brow when all he finds is a folded up piece of paper. He takes a pair of gloves out of the box hanging on the wall and slips them on before taking the piece of paper out of the bowl. He unfolds it and becomes even more confused. The paper just has the word _two_ typed on it 

“Two?” Harry asks, peeking over Louis’ shoulder to get a look at the paper. “What does that mean?”

Niall shakes his head “No clue. Was hoping one of you could tell me that.”

Louis glances over his shoulder at Harry and he looks equally confused as Louis does. “We’re not sure either, but we’ll look into it. Thanks, Niall.”

Louis follows Harry out of the morgue but not without a cheeky eyebrow waggle from Niall. Louis flips him off before he turns the corner and he can hear Niall’s loud cackle bounce down the hallway after him.

\--

Harry bursts into Louis’ office a few days later.

“Casey Wrightman,” he says, throwing down a folder with a picture of a woman paperclipped to the front. “That’s our Jane Doe. She’s a twenty-three-year-old civil engineering student at Imperial. Her parents reported her missing four days before we found her body.”

“Four days?” Louis questions, flipping open the folder to read more about her. An only child, born and raised in London, a lengthy list of academic achievements, about to start a pretty prestigious internship this summer.

“Yeah,” Harry nods. “So whoever killed her must have kidnapped her and then held her hostage before dumping her in that alley,” he stops, bites his lip and takes a deep breath. “Fuck, Lou, she was only three years younger than me.”

Everything about the case Louis has just learned comes to a screeching halt. First off, Harry just called him _Lou_ , which he has never done before, but secondly and most alarmingly, is how young Harry is. Louis always assumed that Harry was younger, but never by that much. “You’re only twenty-six?”

“Yeah, I—” Harry nods, looking slightly confused. “I thought you knew that. It’s in my file.”

“I can’t just read your file, Harry.”

“Why not?” Harry asks, a deep furrow between his brows that Louis _does not_ think is endearing. “You’re my superior, right?”

Louis shakes his head. Why are they even having this discussion right now? There are far more important things they need to attend to; like figure out who killed this poor girl. “Well, technically yes, but we’re still partners and I can’t easily access your file. I don’t just have it at my disposal to read over whenever I’m bored, it’s locked away in the records room. Besides, I would never invade your privacy like that.”

“It’s not like it matters anyway, right? You’re only, like what, two years older than me?”

Louis chuckles. He can’t tell if Harry is just being nice and saying that he looks younger than he really is or if Harry truly thinks he’s only twenty-eight. “More like five.”

Harry’s eyes go so wide, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. “You’re thirty-one?”

“Well, don’t say it like that,” Louis laughs. “You make me sound old.”

“No, no,” Harry holds his hands out and rushes to correct himself. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant you look a lot younger than that, like more my age.”

The heat that Louis feels rising to his cheeks is _not_ a blush, he doesn't blush. Especially when people like _Harry_ compliment him. He doesn't even care in the slightest. “Thanks, but can we please get back to this case?”

Harry gets that cute little forehead crease again with a slightly puzzled look before he glances down to Louis’ desk and sees Casey’s folder laying open. “Oh, right,” he shakes his head, one lone curl falling into his eyes. “Her parents are on their way in right now. You want me to talk to them?”

Louis frowns and closes Casey’s folder, handing it back to Harry. “No, I’ll do it. That part is always the hardest so I’ll let you off the hook just this once because it’s your first time.”

Harry nods and says he’ll be back in a few minutes to fetch Louis when Casey’s parents arrive. It’s literally only five minutes later when Harry pops his head in Louis’ office. Louis stands and makes his way downstairs to meet them.

This has always been the one part of Louis’ job that he’s hated; when the families come in to identify the bodies of their loved ones. It’s hard enough for him to be the one witnessing it and he can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for the families. 

As soon as he enters the lobby, he sees a man and a woman sitting on a bench with visitor stickers pasted to their chests. He approaches them slowly. 

“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Wrightman?” They both nod and the man, who Louis now knows is Casey’s father, stands and shakes Louis’ hand. “I’m Detective Tomlinson and I’m working on your daughter’s case. I’m going to take you downstairs to see her first if that’s okay with you both.”

They follow Louis down the stairs to where the morgue is located. He holds the door open for them but stays outside to give them some privacy. He watches through the little window in the door as Niall folds down the sheet covering Casey’s body just enough to show her face.

Immediately, the mother collapses against the chest of her husband as sobs rack her entire body. The father wraps his arms around her and holds her close as silent tears roll down his cheeks. Louis feels a pang in his chest.

Niall shuffles them back out and Louis leads them upstairs to a small office they use just for interviews like this one. “You two can wait in here. I’ll give you a few minutes to yourself. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to come back shortly to ask you both some questions.”

The father nods, his arms wrapped tightly around his wife who’s still crying softly into his shoulder. “We understand.”

“Would you like me to get you anything while I’m gone?” Louis asks. “Water, tea, some snacks from the vending machine?”

Mr. Wrightman gives him a weak smile. “Just some water would be great, thank you.”

Louis nods and quietly shuts the door behind him. He walks down the hallway to the break room and gets two bottles of water from the vending machine. He’s just about to head back when he gets an idea. He stops by his office and grabs a box of tissues from the drawer in his desk.

When Louis makes it back to the room with Casey’s parents, he hands her mother the box of tissues and a water bottle. She whispers her thanks and takes a tissue out of the box, dabbing it underneath her eyes. 

“First of all,” Louis starts. “Let me just say how sorry I am for your loss. We’re trying everything we can to find out who did this to Casey and you will be the first people we tell once we do. If you’d like, I can keep you updated with any breakthroughs in the case.”

They both murmur their agreement and Louis gets started with the interview. 

“Do you know of anyone who would want to hurt your daughter?”

“No, absolutely not,” Casey’s mother speaks up. “She was bit quiet and mostly kept to herself. She didn’t have many friends, but the ones she did have were like family. Everyone who has ever met Casey has loved her. I don’t know of anyone who would hurt her. She was so young, so innocent.” 

She breaks down into another fit of tears and it’s mainly the father that answers the questions after that. By the time Louis concludes the interview, he doesn’t feel like he has any new information. He didn’t get much of anything out of her parents which is understandable. They are in shock and they’re mourning the loss of their daughter, so he wasn’t expecting much. He just hopes he can find whoever did this and give them some closure.

\--

Turns out, Casey did have a boyfriend, one that her parents didn’t know about. Maybe she wasn’t as innocent as they think she was. They bring the boyfriend in for questioning because Harry still insists that he is the one who killed her. 

Louis sits in for the interview, but he lets Harry conduct it. They find out that the only reason Casey’s parents didn’t know about him, is because their relationship was still fairly new and she wanted to wait until it got a bit more serious for her to tell her parents about it.

Also, he has an alibi. He’s a pizza delivery boy and he was working the night she was killed. They check in with the pizza place and the manager gives them confirmation that he was clocked in for his shift during the time of Casey’s death. 

“He’s a pizza delivery boy,” Harry whispers harshly when the two of them step out of the interview room. “He could have been out on a delivery, swooped by whenever he was holding Casey, killed her, and then dumped her body in the alley before returning back to work.”

“Do you even know how fucking ridiculous you sound right now?” Louis asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

Harry actually pouts and stomps his foot like a damn child throwing a tantrum. “We need to get surveillance footage from inside the pizza shop, make sure he was there. If not, he could still possibly be our guy. Just because he was clocked in doesn't mean a thing.”

Louis still doesn’t understand why Harry is so set on the boyfriend, but he pulls out his cell phone to call Mitch, their technical analyst, to see if he can find surveillance footage. He does it just to appease Harry because he’s honestly getting on Louis’ last nerve.

It only takes a few minutes for Mitch to get back to him and he sends Louis a clip of the video surveillance placing Casey’s boyfriend inside of the pizza shop at the time of her death. He’s leaning against the counter talking animatedly with one of his co-workers, the little timestamp in the corner showing the exact time.

Louis feels very smug at proving Harry wrong when he shows him the video. He lets Harry go back into the interview room alone and he comes right back out with Casey’s boyfriend in tow. He’s free to go since he’s no longer a suspect.

\--

There’s another body.

Louis gets the call when he’s at home. It’s the first time he’s been to his flat since they found Casey’s body and that was ten days ago. Well, eleven now because it’s a little past one in the morning. He planned on sleeping when he got home, but he should have known better. While he is in his bed, he has all of Casey’s case file open with paper and photos scattered out across his duvet. 

He wanted to get some research done before going to bed because they haven’t made any progress in this case and it’s starting to stress Louis out a little. He’s losing sleep over this. Not like that is any different than normal, he rarely sleeps as it is, but it’s even less now.

All of the words and letters on the pages are starting to blur together because he’s been staring at them for so long. He’s stuck and he can’t think straight because his brain is absolutely fried.

The sound of his phone ringing startles him because he was very intently examining the crime scene photos for the umpteenth time. He answers it without bothering to look at the screen to see who is calling. When he hears the person on the other end of the phone, his back goes ramrod straight and he drops the photo he was currently holding.

He scrambles out of his apartment as fast as possible, only stopping to grab his car keys and his jacket. He jumps into his car and speeds off to the address he was given. It’s another nightclub, but this time it’s behind it instead of across the street.

Harry is already at the scene when Louis arrives and he fills Louis in on everything he knows so far. He leads Louis around the building towards the back where the body is and as soon as Louis sees it, he stops dead in his tracks.

It’s another woman but she looks to be quite a few years older than Casey. It’s the way that she is posed though that caused Louis to stop. It’s the same exact way it was with Casey; her hands clasped and lying across her stomach, her legs crossed at the ankles. She even has the same finger-shaped bruising around her neck.

“What the hell,” Louis says, still completely stunned.

“I know,” Harry responds. “I couldn’t believe it either.”

They don’t need much time to examine the body because from what they can see on the surface, everything is exactly the same it was with Casey. The only thing that is different is a silver necklace around this new woman’s neck. It’s a simple heart shape with a single white diamond on the left side, and when Louis takes a closer look at it, he notices it has a partial print on the backside.

He carefully unclasps it from around her neck and places it into an evidence bag. “There’s a fingerprint on this necklace,” he tells Harry.

Harry’s eyes go wide. “What?”

“You take this back to the station and give it to Liam, tell him to run that print through the database and see if we get a match,” Louis says, handing Harry the baggie with the necklace. “I’ll call Niall and tell him we have another one.”

“Alright,” Harry nods. “I’ll also take a look at missing persons and see if she comes up.”

“Good idea. Hopefully, I’ll meet you back there in thirty with Niall.”

Louis calls Niall once he’s back in his car on his way to Niall’s house. Of course, he’s grouchy about being woken up. You would think that Niall would have gotten used to it now due to the number of times he’s called in the middle of the night and yet, he’s still a grumpy toddler. Niall _loves_ his sleep and if he doesn’t get his full eight hours, you’ll never hear the end of it, especially if you’re the reason he was interrupted. So Louis knows he’s in for a long night of complaining. 

He picks up a very displeased Niall and heads back to the station. Niall gets to work on the autopsy while Louis hangs out with Harry and Liam while Liam searched through the database for their fingerprint. Louis knows it’s a longshot, the print probably belongs to the woman, but even then it might tell them who she is because just like Casey, she had no identification on her. 

Harry leaves Liam’s lab to grab his own laptop so he can look through the missing person's reports. He returns a couple minutes later with his laptop in one hand and a bag of crisps in the other. 

“No,” Liam barks without even looking up from his computer as soon as Harry steps foot back in the lap.

“What?” Harry asks with a mouth full of crisps.

“There’s no food allowed in the lab,” Liam explains. “You can either leave in the basket by the door or finish eating in the hallway.”

Harry frowns, aghast, and blinks at Liam. He looks over his shoulder at the hallway and then at the basket Liam mentioned next to the door and then at Louis, his frown only getting deeper. He looks a bit like a frog with his face like that or even a little like that really annoying muppet with the orange hair and the big nose. It’s not endearing in the slightest.

“It’s true, mate,” Louis says, trying his hardest not to laugh at Harry’s reaction. “Liam doesn’t like it when people eat in here. I’ve been told off for it several times.”

Harry decides to step out into the hallway and dump the remaining crisps right into his giant mouth. A few crumbs fly out as he chews, but he renters the room only seconds later when he’s finished. 

There’s no match for the fingerprint the found in the database. It could still belong to either the victim or the suspect, but whoever it does belong to isn’t in their system. Of course, they wouldn’t be, that would be too easy.

Harry finds their newest victim listed as a missing person, and again just like Casey, the victim’s husband reported her missing only four days ago. These two cases keep looking more and more similar. Her name is Rose Murray; she’s a forty-one-year-old lawyer, married with three children.

Niall calls them down to the morgue when he’s finished the autopsy and Louis wonders just how much this one will be like the first. As it turns out, it’s exactly the same, except for the little piece of paper in her stomach has the word _three_ typed on it.

“Wait,” Louis says, the lightbulb above his head going off with an idea. “Casey was number two, Rose is number three, so what if this is the third victim.”

“Then where is number one?” Harry asks.

“Well, maybe the first one wasn’t killed in the same way,” Louis elaborates. “With some serial killers, their first victim is messier and not as thought out as the rest.”

Harry gasps. “Serial killer?”

Louis nods. “I think that’s what we’re working with now.”

\--

It’s a few hours later when Louis hears it. He’s rummaging around in the cabinets in the break room for tea. He usually keeps a box in his office, but he’s run out and he hasn’t had a chance to replace it yet. He finds the tea cabinet, but of course, someone has put the box of Yorkshire on the very top shelf. He groans as he stretches out on his tiptoes to try and reach it.

“I can’t believe my first case in London is a serial killer. How exciting is that?”

Louis hears Harry’s voice as he enters the break room, one of their other co-workers alongside him. Something about what Harry just said doesn’t sit right with Louis and he turns to him with a frown.

“People are dying, Harry. There’s nothing exciting about that.”

Harry whips his head around, eyes staring at Louis widely with surprise. “No, that’s not what—”

“Innocent people being murdered is exciting to you?” Louis interjects, anger now boiling on the surface of his skin. He’s had enough of Harry’s happy-go-lucky attitude. Any other place Louis probably wouldn’t mind it, but he’s not going to tolerate that shit here, and definitely not from his own partner. “This is a serious case. This is a serious _job_ and if you’re just going to crack jokes and fool around all the time, then maybe you should go back to Cheshire because that’s not the way we do things around here.”

He sees Harry’s jaw drop as he storms out of the backroom, no longer in the mood for his tea. He needs a smoke now instead.

\--

They know that age isn’t a factor, seeing as there’s an almost twenty year age gap between the two victims. It’s not a racial thing either because they were both of different races. It’s also not a lookalike surrogate thing because Casey had black hair and Rose had red hair. So Louis is officially stumped.

The only thing he knows for certain that ties these two women together is just that; they’re both women. Whoever is killing them could just have it out for women in general, but that almost seems too simple.

Sure, Louis could ask Harry, his partner who is also working on this case, what he thinks about it, but Harry has been ignoring him ever since Louis’ little outburst in the break room the other day. It’s a little hard for Harry to completely ignore him since Harry’s desk is right outside of Louis office so they still _see_ each other every day, but they haven’t spoken. Whenever Louis walks by Harry’s desk, Harry always looks away in the opposite direction. 

One thing Louis’ sure of is Harry needs to pull the stick out of his arse and stop giving Louis the cold shoulder so they can figure out this case. If he keeps acting like a child, then that will never happen.

\--

It’s midnight on a Thursday and Louis is parked down the street from a nightclub. Harry is sitting next to him in the passenger's seat slurping down his bowl of noodles. It’s been eleven days since they found Rose and since it was eleven days before that when they found Casey, they’re suspecting that there might be another victim tonight. 

Both women were found a little after one in the morning, so Louis and Harry are on a stakeout waiting for the next one. It’s been years since Louis’ had to do one of these and he’s dreading it. The fact that he’s doing it with Harry doesn’t make it any better.

There’s no way of telling which nightclub the killer will leave the body by if they even leave a body at all today, but they’ve picked a different nightclub than the first two and they’re hoping they get lucky. Maybe they’ll be able to catch the suspect in the act.

Harry insists they stop for food first because he hasn’t eaten in hours and Louis is in the same boat so he swings by a Chinese restaurant for takeaway. Now, Louis is trying to ignore the obscene way Harry eats while working on his own noodles and keeping his eyes peeled for any suspicious activity.

At least Harry has finally started talking to him again. Maybe Louis should have apologized for going off on him, but he doesn’t regret it. Especially now that it seems like Harry is more serious about things and twice as involved in the case as he was to begin with. Harry also agrees with Louis that there has to be something else that the two victims have in common besides gender. 

About thirty minutes go by and Louis is already bored out of his mind. Nothing has happened besides a few drunk university students stumbling in and out of the club. As it gets closer and closer to one o’clock, Louis beings to think that they might have picked the wrong nightclub. 

“Well, we could do something so you’re not as bored,” Harry suggests when Louis tells him just how incredibly bored he is.

“If I take a quick nap will you keep watch?” Louis offers, praying that Harry will take him up on it. He feels like he hasn’t slept all week, which he kind of hasn’t. He needs to start doing things like Niall and getting a full eight hours every night. He wonders what that’s like. He makes a mental note to ask Niall how he does it later on.

Harry giggles and Louis’ tired brain thinks that sounds really pretty. He might not mind it if Harry does that more often. “I had a little something else in mind.”

Louis opens one eye and uses it look over at Harry. “Yeah? What’s that?” He feels a hand on his knee that slowly starts to creep up his thigh. That definitely wakes him up and he jolts a little in his seat. He takes Harry’s hand and removes it from his thigh, shoving it back over to Harry’s side of the car. “Harry, what the hell?”

“Aren’t you curious, Lou?” Harry asks, a sultry edge to his voice that _does not_ send tingles up Louis’ spine. “We had such a good time that night we met. Haven’t you wanted to try it again?”

He would be lying if he said no. He can’t say that he hasn’t been itching to get his mouth back on Harry in some way or another. Harry is infuriatingly fit and Louis is definitely attracted to him, but he’s been doing an excellent job of controlling himself whenever he’s around Harry. It’s even easier to do that when Harry gets on his last fucking nerve about ninety percent of the time. 

“Absolutely not,” Louis lies through his teeth. “I already told you that it was never going to happen again and I plan to stick to that.”

“Aw, c’mon Lou,” Harry says right against Louis’ ear, the deep rumble of his voice causing Louis to shiver. “You said you were bored. Don’t you want to have a little fun?”

 _Fuck it_ , Louis thinks. Harry’s hot and Louis hasn’t received any action since the last time they slept together and who knows how fucking long it will be until he gets any again. He’s only human and he has needs and well, Harry _is_ offering. They have thirty more minutes until one and it’ll still be a few more minutes after that until anything really happens, so surely they can just share a couple mutual hand jobs that’ll be over in no time. They won’t miss a thing.

He grabs the back of Harry’s neck and brings him in closer so he can seal their lips together. Harry sighs happily against Louis’ lips and eagerly kisses him back. Louis may have been a little under the influence the last time they did this, but he definitely doesn’t remember it being this good. Harry’s lips are so _soft_ and they slot perfectly against his own like they were literally made for this. Harry’s fingers slip under the hem of Louis’ shirt to graze his knuckles over the soft skin of Louis’ stomach.

All it takes is one gentle swipe of Harry’s tongue over Louis’ bottom lip for things to get heated. Harry opens up so easily and _willingly_ for him that it makes arousal swoop low in Louis’ gut. The way Harry tastes—a bit like minty chewing gum and something sharper like cinnamon—is _euphoric_ and Louis can’t get enough of it. 

In the back of his mind, Louis knows this is a terrible idea and they shouldn't be doing it. They’re still on duty, they’re supposed to be on the lookout for a bloody serial killer, but the way Harry’s tongue slides against his own feels way too fucking good to stop.

The hand that is still tracing circles on Louis’ stomach sinks a little lower and pops open the button on his trousers, quickly following along with the zipper. Harry slips his hand underneath the waistband of Louis’ boxer briefs and Louis jumps when Harry’s fingertips graze the base of his cock.

“Wanna suck you off,” Harry mumbles against Louis’s lips. “Please, Lou. I’ve literally been dreaming about it.”

Just the thought of that has Louis’ mind going blank and all he can do is nod in response. Harry reaches across him for the little button on the side of Louis’ seat that allows it to recline and holds it down until Louis is lying flat. Louis lifts his hips as best he can in his position to help Harry tug his trousers and underwear down just far enough for his cock to pop free.

It’s almost embarrassing how hard he is already, but then Harry wastes absolutely no time taking him all the way down, enveloping him in velvety, wet heat, and Louis has never been farther from caring about anything ever in his whole life. His hands scramble for something to hold onto because he feels like he might float right off the face of the earth or melt straight through his seat if he doesn’t get a grip on something as soon as possible.

One hand finds its way into Harry’s hair and the other wraps itself around that little handle above the window. Does that thing have a proper name? Even if it does, Louis’ couldn’t give two shits what it is right now because Harry has finally settled on a rhythm that feels incredible.

The sight of Harry’s lips stretched around him, dragging up and down, combined with how it feels is _a lot_. Harry pulls almost all the way off and sucks hard on the head and Louis can’t help the shudder that goes through him or the choked off noise that he makes. 

The fingers that Louis has in Harry’s hair tug a little harshly when Harry does this _amazing_ thing with his tongue. He can _feel_ Harry respond to that hair tug because he hums around him, the vibrations shooting all the way through his body. This is going to be over far too quickly.

Harry flutters his eyes open and flicks them up to meet Louis’, who is still gazing at Harry in pure awe that his mouth is capable of doing such beautiful things instead of talking utter crap a majority of the time. Louis can see the tears welling up in Harry’s eyes and he feels that Harry would actually be smiling up at him if his mouth wasn’t so, well, stuffed full. He seems to be enjoying this just as much as Louis is.

Harry’s eyes close again as he takes Louis all the way down in one smooth, wet motion. Louis feels himself hit the back of Harry’s throat, which is fucking phenomenal in and of itself, but then Harry _swallows_ around him and Louis feels the muscles of Harry’s throat constricting around the tip of his cock and that’s it. 

That familiar pull in the pit of his stomach creeps up on him out of absolutely nowhere and he only manages a measly little tug on Harry’s hair to warn him before he’s coming. Harry doesn’t move, just happily swallows around him again as Louis comes. He pulls off a second too early, some of Louis’ come dribbling over his lips. 

The sight of _that_ tears Louis’ mind right in half. Even in his post-orgasmic haze, he can’t resist rubbing his hand down the side of Harry’s face and sliding his thumb through this mess on his lips. And then, Harry does the most mind-blowing thing of the night; he sucks Louis’ thumb right into his mouth. Louis’ cock gives a feeble twitch.

He’s never been able to bounce back very quickly from an orgasm, but Harry staring up at him unblinkingly, _sucking his come off of his thumb_ , might just do the trick.

Harry pops off his thumb with a grin. “Well, that was really fun.” His voice is wrecked and his lips are slick with saliva and other dirty things Louis shouldn’t be thinking about. Instead, he thinks about just how badly he wants to kiss Harry again.

Before Louis is able to sit up and give Harry the hard, bruising kiss that he’s yearning to give him, Harry sits back in his seat and pulls his own dick out of his trousers. He strokes himself hard and fast, the prettiest sounds Louis had ever heard falling from his lips. If Louis’ brain still wasn’t a useless mush sloshing around inside his skull, he probably would have given Harry a hand. No pun intended.

Harry gets there himself though, his mouth going slack and his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Christ, he’s gorgeous. Louis hands him one of the napkins they got with their takeaway to clean himself up with and Harry gives him a bashful smile in thanks. 

Shortly after Harry’s come, Louis’ cell phone rings.

They both jump at the sudden sound as Louis reaches for it to answer. Dread pools in his stomach when he sees what time it is and the number that is currently flashing across his screen.


	2. Chapter 2

“What the hell were you thinking?”

Louis winces at the volume of the chief’s voice. In all the years that Louis has been on the force, he’s not once been reprimanded for any of his actions. But the second Harry comes waltzing in here all high and mighty like he’s tough shit, it happens. Louis has a feeling those two things are correlated. 

Also, because Louis has been having the best of luck lately, there was another body. It was found around the time Harry had Louis’ cock in his mouth. And to make matters even worse, the body was found at the club they were parked in front of. 

Everything about this victim was the exact same as the previous two, so it was definitely their suspect, and if Louis wasn’t doing something so _careless_ , he probably would have seen it happen in the act. 

As soon as the chief found out about what happened, he had their heads. “What were you two doing that you missed the body being dropped literal feet from where you were parked?”

“I guess we just weren’t looking in the right direction,” Harry says before Louis has a chance to make up some crazy lie because he’s definitely not going to tell the chief what really happened. He’s not going to tell _anyone_ about that, it’s going to forever stay between him and Harry. And hopefully his brain will let him forgot all about it and he’ll never have to think of it again.

Apparently, that wasn’t the right thing to say because the chief’s face gets even redder. “Get out of my office now before I fire the both of you and replace you with people who actually do their jobs.”

Louis doesn’t even hesitate, just turns on his heel and marches straight out of the office before the chief has the chance to change his mind and fires him anyway. He hears the sound of footsteps behind him and he knows it’s Harry but he just ignores it. He doesn’t want to be around Harry right now, can barely stand the sight of him to be honest. 

Harry quickly catches up to him, gripping onto his shoulder to spin him around. “So, do you want to come back to my place?”

Louis is stunned. He honestly cannot believe Harry just asked him that. The _audacity_. “What the fuck?”

Harry takes a step closer and reaches out to touch Louis’ hip, a sly smile on his face. “I just thought we could continue what we were doing in your car.” 

Louis moves out of Harry’s reach, he can _feel_ his skin crawling. He’s never been more disgusted by someone than he is by Harry right now. “Jesus, Harry, what the hell is wrong with you?” He shouts, his blood boiling with anger and irritation. “We almost got fired, does that mean nothing to you?”

“Yeah, we _almost_ got fired,” Harry says casually which just infuriates Louis even more. “We didn’t actually. We still have our jobs.”

“Look, this job means everything to me,” Louis begins, trying his best to suppress his anger. “I give it my fucking all day in and day out. It’s all I have and I’m not about to jeopardize that by something so stupid.”

“Stupid?” Harry questions with an eyebrow raise. “You sure seemed to be enjoying yourself back in the car.”

Fucking hell, Louis is seriously about to slap this kid. “Of course I did. Any sane man would enjoy getting his dick sucked. It had absolutely nothing to do with that fact that it was you doing it. A warm hole is a warm hole, right?” He whispers just in case there are any curious ears nearby. He’s sure someone has heard all the shouting and is listening to hear what’s going on. “Maybe if you were actually doing your job instead of something so reckless we wouldn’t be in this position at all. Now get the fuck out of my face before I do something I really regret.”

He doesn’t even stay long enough to see how Harry reacts to that, he just turns right around and takes the stairs down to the main level and out to the car park. He gets into his car so he can go the fuck home and be as far away from Harry as possible.

\--

Things have gone to shit, to say the least. They still haven’t had a break in the case and they’re not any closer to finding who killed these innocent women. Of course, it doesn’t help that now Louis is the one with the cold shoulder, acting like a child. He’s still holding a grudge against Harry for almost getting them fired and he hasn’t spoken to him since the night of their stakeout. 

He’s taking a bit further than he should, completely ignoring Harry at all times. He’ll walk past him without acknowledging him and Harry will even try to talk to him, ask him questions, but Louis won’t respond at all. He knows he’s been an asshole, but he’s angry. This job means everything to him and he’s worked hard to get to where he is. People that jeopardize that don’t deserve his time of day.

He has lunch with Niall because Niall usually eats down in the basement in his office, which is pretty secluded from the rest of the station. Louis needs to spend more time down here, it’s so quiet, and it’s nice not to be around a certain person for at least an hour.

Louis’ got his feet propped up on Niall’s desk, leaning his chair onto its back two legs while he eats his lunch and listens to Niall talk about the body he just examined earlier that morning. He’s only half listening to what Niall’s saying because he can’t stop thinking about Harry. On the one hand, he’s still royally pissed about the chief ripping them both a new arsehole for missing their suspect when they were only feet from where they were parked. Then, on the other hand, Louis also can’t stop thinking about Harry’s mouth because, holy shit, he’s _really_ good with it.

“What’s got your panties in a twist?” Niall asks out of nowhere.

The two front legs of Louis’ chair plop back to the ground with a dull _thud_. “What do you mean?”

“There’s clearly something on your mind,” Niall elaborates. “You didn’t listen to a word I just said.”

“Of course I did,” Louis says, obviously lying. “You were talking about the autopsy you did this morning.”

Niall narrows his eyes. “Okay then, was it a male or a female? 

Shit, maybe Louis should have been paying more attention because he honestly doesn’t know which one it is. He racks his brain, tries to think back to what Niall said earlier, but he comes up with nothing. “Uh, female?” 

“Nope, it was a boy.” Niall crosses his arms over his chest. “Now, are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”

Louis sighs, shoving another chip into his mouth. “It’s Harry.”

“Oh,” Niall drags out the word with a little waggle of his eyebrows. God, Louis hates him. “You’ve finally figured out your feelings for him, huh?”

Louis sputters around his drink. “What the fuck? No. I do not have feelings for him. I can’t stand the kid.”

“I think you do,” Niall says. “You two just need to shag and get it over with. The sexual tension is driving me crazy.”

Louis freezes. If only Niall knew that they’ve already done that. _Twice_. There’s no way in hell he’s ever letting that information out, especially to Niall. “We don’t need to shag, Ni, that’s ridiculous. I’m just angry with him right now because he almost cost me my job.” He fills Niall in on everything that happened the other night leaving out the naughty bits.

“You’re an idiot,” Niall says, which doesn’t make Louis feel any better. It’s not like that’s any different than normal though, Niall is always telling him he’s an idiot. “You just need to talk to him. Whatever is going on between you two is just stupid. You aren’t in secondary school anymore.”

It isn’t until later that night when Louis realizes that maybe he really should ease up on Harry a little bit.

Mitch corners him while he’s in the break room making himself a cup of tea because he _still_ hasn’t restocked his stash in his office. Apparently, when Harry needs someone to talk to in the office he goes to Mitch. It’s surprising how quickly those two hit it off, they’re complete opposites. Mitch has always been kind of quiet and mysterious, mostly just keeps to himself, while Harry never fucking shuts up. Louis doesn’t know how Mitch puts up with all of Harry’s bullshit.

Mitch tells him that even before Harry came to him, he noticed something was off between them. It’s one thing for Mitch to notice anyway since he’s always holed up in his office, but for him to actually leave it and come seek Louis out just to tell him to get his shit together is a pretty big deal.

\--

“Should we maybe alert the public that there is a serial killer roaming the streets?” Harry pops his head into Louis’ office.

“No,” Louis replies, not even bothering to look up from his computer screen. Even though he just finished sending an email to their communications liaison with all the information they have at the moment. She’s set to give a press conference later this afternoon.

Harry frowns, his eyebrows furrowing, as he loiters in the doorway. It’s obvious that he’s working up the courage to say something and Louis hates that he’s hoping Harry will just give up and go away.

“I know I fucked up, okay?” Harry says, stepping further into the office, shutting the door behind him. No such luck then. “I know you’re angry with me, and you have every right to be, but we’re partners, Lou. You need to talk to me. I don’t like it when you’re not talking to me.” He whispers the last part so quietly that Louis almost misses it.

“You get plenty of attention from everyone else in the office,” Louis says. “Surely that’s good enough for you.”

Harry sits himself down in the chair on the opposite side of Louis’ desk, his shoulders hunched in on himself. “It doesn’t matter how much attention you get if it’s not from the person you want. It’s obvious that I have feelings for you, at least I feel like I’ve made that pretty obvious, and it’s obvious that you don’t reciprocate. You said that you don’t get involved with people you work with and I should have respected that and not tried to push you. I apologize for that.”

Well, Louis wasn’t exactly expecting that. He’s definitely assumed that Harry has a little bit of a crush on him if the way he practically threw himself at Louis the other night is any indication. He can’t say that he doesn’t feel _something_ for Harry, but he’s been pushing every single one of those _somethings_ as far away as possible. He’s put all of his time and energy into this case so he doesn't have to think about what exactly those feelings mean.

“I wasn’t a detective back in Cheshire,” Harry continues. “I never really intended to be one. I was happy with what I was doing before that so I never gave it any thought. When the job opened up, my captain pulled me into his office and told me he thought I’d be a perfect fit for it. We had quite a long chat about it, I gave it a couple days thought, and decided to go through with it. He put in a good word for me and now here I am.

I was scared shitless, Lou. I only knew the basics about being a detective and I just knew that I would cock it all up on my first day. That’s why I went out that night, I was so nervous I couldn’t turn my brain off enough to let me sleep. I thought maybe a couple drinks would help calm me down enough that I could at least get a few hours of sleep, but then I saw you. I thought you were the most attractive man I had ever seen and I couldn’t take my eyes off you after I first saw you.”

Louis doesn’t understand why Harry is telling him all this, but he can definitely relate. He thought the same exact thing about Harry when he first saw him across the pub that night. He _still_ thinks that about Harry, actually.

“I wasn’t planning on doing anything except admiring you from afar because, as you know, I was about to start the biggest job of my life, but the more drinks I had, the braver I got,” Harry’s talking a lot softer than he normally does and the deep rumble of his voice is so soothing. “Going home with you was definitely not an option for me but when you suggested it I couldn’t turn you down. And Lou, when I was with you I completely forgot everything. You made me feel safe and comfortable and like I could take on anything. I know that sounds crazy after only spending a night with you but it’s true.” 

Harry sighs and adjusts himself in the chair, a rosy pink hue rising to the apples of his cheeks. “After that night I was so much more comfortable coming into work the next day. I was still nervous as fuck, don’t get me wrong, but it was easier to deal with. I just had the most amazing night with this even more amazing guy and I felt great. The very last thing I expected was to walk into his office and find out that he’s my partner just hours after leaving his flat. We didn’t exchange numbers or anything so I thought we would never see each other again.”

Louis’ watching Harry’s face intently as he talks and it’s almost like he’s having to force the words out. He’s scrunching up his whole face like this is the hardest thing he’s ever had to say, but Louis’ hanging on to every word.

“I honestly felt like I had just won the lottery when I saw you again, but you were so rude to me right off the bat and that really hurt and was confusing. I understand now why you did that because you didn’t want to get close to me, but I couldn’t help but think back to that night we shared. It was like you were a completely different person. You were so caring and thoughtful and soft and I could easily see myself falling for you, which is kinda scary after having only just met you. Then working with you was like a total one-eighty. You were rude and cold and condescending, it’s like every single thing I did annoyed you. At first, I thought that maybe you were just having a bad day, but it never changed and I finally realized it was me that you didn’t like.”

Louis opens his mouth to reply to that, to say that technically isn’t true. He’s always liked Harry, right from the start, but he wouldn’t allow himself to actually like him. He would find the smallest, most stupid things that Harry did that honestly wouldn’t even annoy him that much and cling to that to try and ignore the fact that he might be feeling something. Louis doesn't get a chance to say any of that though because Harry just barrels on. 

“Even after all of that,” Harry says. “I knew that the person I first met was still there somewhere deep inside and I couldn’t let go of that. So yeah, maybe I do have a massive crush on you and I know that nothing I do will make you feel the same way about me and I need to get over myself and move on. 

As happy as I was to be intimate with you again, I realized how stupid of me that was to do, especially while we were still on duty. I know how much this job means to you and I’m sorry I did something like that to compromise it. If I ever was the reason for you to lose this job—which you’re incredible at by the way I’m still in awe of you—I would be devastated and I’d probably never stop hating myself for it. I’m terribly sorry, Louis. I’ll give you some space.”

Harry stands up from the chair and turns around. He slowly makes his way out of the office and Louis just stares at his back as he goes. He sighs just as Harry crosses the threshold.

“Harry wait,” Louis calls out to him. He waits until Harry turns back around before he continues. “Thank you for your apology, I really appreciate it, even though you don’t have a reason to apologize. Well, except for almost costing me my job, you should be apologizing for that,” he chuckles, trying to make light of this extremely heavy conversation. “What happened the other night was a two-way street. I could have easily said no and pushed you away, but I didn’t. It was just as much my fault as it was yours. If that were to ever happen again—”

“It’s going to happen again?” Harry interrupts, the most ridiculous fucking grin on his face.

“ _If_ ,’ Louis emphasizes. “That doesn't mean it will, but if it does, I don’t think I’d be that opposed to it. It better be when we aren’t on duty because I don’t think the chief would let us off the hook that easily again if something else were to happen.” Since Louis was a lot more sober the second time they fooled around, he was able to remember every single detail and he’s been going over and over it again in his head. He honestly cannot stop thinking about it. He still hasn’t quite decided whether that’s a good thing or not. “As annoying as you are, I’ve actually come to realize you aren’t half bad. I can easily see us becoming pretty good friends.”

A deep dimple pops into Harry’s left cheek as his grin widens before he nods and turns to head back to his desk.

\--

Louis runs his fingers through his hair, his elbows resting on his desk, the muscles in his neck and shoulders are painfully stiff. He’s so stressed that he’s on the brink of ripping his hair out.

He jumps in surprise when he feels hands on his shoulders. He doesn’t even need to look up to know that it’s Harry and he melts like butter after each message of Harry’s hands. He also has to subconsciously tell himself not to get turned on because Harry is just that incredible with his hands, even if it’s just for a little shoulder rub, but that’s neither here nor there.

Things have definitely shifted between them since Harry opened up to him a few days ago. For one, Louis has so much more respect for Harry now knowing that he came into this job without having much knowledge about it beforehand and still excelling at it as much as he does, even though Louis will never admit that to Harry out loud. 

They banter back and forth like real friends and more often than not, Harry spreads out on the floor of Louis’ office so they can work on their case together instead of sitting at his own desk.

“I brought you some dinner,” Harry says, taking his right hand off of Louis’ shoulder to point to the paper bag sitting on the edge of Louis’ desk. “Fish and chips.”

Louis hums when Harry digs his fingers in even harder. “Thanks, but I’m not hungry.”

“Lou,” Harry says, an obvious reprimanding tone to his voice. He also stopped his shoulder massaging and Louis may or may not be pouting about that. “You need to eat. I haven’t seen you eat anything all day.”

Louis reaches out for the bag and riffles through it until he can grab a couple chips and pops them into his mouth. “Happy now?” He asks, his mouth full.

“No, eat your entire meal and I’ll be happy,” Harry responds, grabbing his food out of the bag and plopping himself down in his usual spot on the floor. “You should probably get some sleep too, you look exhausted.”

“I’m not going to sleep until we solve this case,” Louis says, shoving a few more chips into his mouth.

Harry looks up at him and then down to where he has the case file open in front of him sprawled out on the floor. “Well, you may be awake for a very long time then.”

Louis just shrugs. That’s pretty much the norm for him as of late, so he’s not too worried about it.

It’s quiet between them after that as they eat and try to figure out what the hell is going on with this case, which they’re _still_ struggling with. It’s fairly late at night so they are one of the only few people left in the office, the rest of the floor beyond Louis’ office is nothing but darkness. 

The silence is broken when Harry starts giggling. Louis glances up from his desk to see Harry typing something on his phone. “What’s so funny over there?”

“Oh, sorry,” Harry giggles again, setting his phone off to the side. “I just got a text from my sister. She’s on a date right now and it’s pretty disastrous. She’s been texting me updates all night.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” Louis says.

“Yeah, Gemma,” Harry says. “She’s four years older than me, but she’s my best friend.” Louis can tell just from the way he’s talking about her and the smile on his face, just how much she means to him, how much he loves her. 

“Does she live in Cheshire?”

“No, she actually lives in London,” Harry tells him. “One of the deciding factors to help me take this job, so I can see her more often. Our mum still lives in Cheshire, so it was hard to leave her because we’re really close, but I was ready for a change of scenery. Plus, there’s always FaceTime and I can pretty easily go back and visit whenever I want. What about you? What’s your family like?”

Louis smiles as he glances at the framed photos that line his desk. He points to each one and tells Harry about the members of his family pictured in them. His chest feels warm as he talks, just like it always does whenever he mentions or thinks about his family. They’re the most important thing in the world to him and he would do anything for them.

They get back to work shortly after that, silence once again filling the room as they brainstorm. 

“We aren’t getting anywhere,” Harry says suddenly. “We have to look at this from a different angle.” He clears off the corner of Louis’ desk and lays out a photo of each one of their victims. “Okay, what do we know for sure right now?” Before Louis even has a chance to answer that, Harry rambles on and answers it himself. “They look nothing alike, so obviously our killer doesn’t have a type,” he puts air quotes around the word _type_. “It could just be the fact that they’re all women, but I feel like there’s more to it than that. There has to be something else, something more personal.”

Louis nods along as Harry talks because yes, he already knows all that; he’s already figured that out. He just can’t seem to figure out what that _something personal_ thing is. Louis watches as Harry stares at the photos, scratching at his chin in contemplation. Harry goes back and forth between the photos and their notes in the case file. 

Louis gets distracted by watching Harry work, how cute he is when he scrunches up his face in concentration, that he almost misses what Harry says next.

“Oh my god, I figured it out,” Harry exclaims excitedly. “It’s their jobs.”

Louis pulls his eyes away from Harry’s face, down to the photos and frowns. “But Casey didn’t have a job.”

“Yeah, technically,” Harry nods. “She was about to start an internship, remember? At one of the biggest civil engineering companies in England. And Rose—” Harry points to the photo of her on the desk. “She was a lawyer and Charlie, our newest victim, was a nurse. They all had pretty prestigious careers, so maybe our suspect is jealous. Maybe it’s a man who feels threatened by these women. He’s intimidated by them and thinks that there shouldn’t be women out there that are more intelligent and better off than him.”

That makes so much sense; Harry is definitely on to something with that. Louis’ disgusted that there is someone out there that possibly thinks that. Women deserve the same, if not more than men do. 

Now they just need to figure out how this man has come into contact with these women. They need Mitch to delve a little deeper into their personal lives and Louis’ praying that he’s still in the office.

They make their way through the bullpen and down the hallway in the corner to where Mitch’s office is located, the door is ajar and thankfully the light inside is on. Louis barely has a second to even open his mouth before Harry barrels right into Mitch’s office and starts chatting away. 

Harry sits on the corner of Mitch’s desk and Mitch actually cracks a smile when Harry tells one of his usual terrible jokes. Just seeing Mitch smile is an oddity, Louis’ only seen him smile like that maybe twice in all the years they’ve worked together. Mitch has never been this at ease around someone before. He can’t help but feel a little twinge of jealousy at the relationship they have.

It only takes about an hour of digging until Mitch has got it; all their victims attended the same gym. That can’t just be a coincidence. Louis shares a look with Harry and they both seem to be on the same page. Looks like they’re going undercover

\--

They meet up outside of the gym the next morning, Louis decked out in some workout clothes he found in the very back of his closet that he didn’t even know he owned.

“Hey,” Harry greets when Louis approaches. “You ready to get all hot and sweaty?”

Louis can think of a few ways he’d like to get hot and sweaty with Harry that doesn’t include gym equipment. “I doubt you’ll be able to keep up with me to be quite honest. I played a little footie on the side while I was in uni, so you better watch your back, Styles.”

Harry barks out that awful honking laugh of his that Louis still finds frustratingly endearing and Louis bumps shoulders with him as he walks past and into the gym.

It’s super fancy on the inside. It looks more like a five-star resort spa than a gym. There are multiple floors, state of the art equipment, _three_ different pools, a racetrack, and even a fucking juice bar. This is some next level shit. They spoke to the owner beforehand, told him a much as they could without causing panic so that they’re able to get in without a membership with no problem.

They find two empty treadmills right next to each other and hop on. Louis places his water bottle in the cup holder and punches up the treadmill to a fast walking pace just to get warmed up. Much to Louis’ chagrin, they actually have to work out as to not cause any suspicion. They are undercover after all. Why couldn’t they go undercover at a fucking theme park or a pub, somewhere where no physical activity is required?

Louis gets winded and sweaty fairly quickly. It’s been awhile since he had time to hit the gym, well since his football days back in university, so he’s definitely a bit rusty and he’s already feeling it just from the treadmill. He chances a quick glance to his right where Harry is and it’s clear that he isn’t even fazed. He’s running, like full on _running_ , and he looks just as fucking casual as ever. Louis isn’t jealous because that would be ridiculous.

After their warm-up on the treadmills, or for Louis; the maximum amount of physical activity for a lifetime, they move across the room to the free weights. Louis keeps his eyes peeled for anyone that could possibly be their suspect, but so far he isn’t having any luck. Except for the people that have obviously come with a friend or a group, mostly everyone just keeps to themselves. 

He does another quick scan of the room and still doesn’t see anything suspicious so he turns to pick up a couple weights. He looks over to check on Harry and he almost drops the damn weight on his foot. At some point, Harry must have taken his shirt off because he is now completely bare from the waist up. 

Louis can see his upper body move in ways he’s never really seen before. The broad expanse of his back and chest, the muscles rippling and straining underneath his skin as he moves. Sweat glistening in all the right places. It’s so distracting.

Harry must notice Louis is distracted because he pauses mid-workout. “You okay?” He asks with an eyebrow cocked.

“Great,” Louis replies and then gives the weight he’s currently holding a curl because he thinks that’s what you’re supposed to do with it. His brain isn’t really functioning right now. He tries not to wince as he does it because it’s a lot heavier than it looks. “Just forgot how much I love a good workout.”

They spend a little over an hour at the gym and Louis is cranky and miserable for all of it. He hasn’t seen anyone that stood out as a possible suspect, his entire body is achy, and a shirtless, sweaty Harry has been by his side the entire time. He is more than ready to leave.

They stop at the water fountain to refill their bottles before collecting their belongings from the locker room. Louis fills his up first and then steps off to the side to allow Harry to move in and do the same. Louis watches Harry as he drinks; he takes about two sips from the bottle and then dumps the remaining water over his head, the water careening down his body. 

Louis nearly chokes as he watches the water flow through every dip and curve of Harry’s body. That was completely unnecessary and Louis is so thankful he’s wearing a pair of loose shorts because his dick definitely took interest in that. 

When he finally peels his eyes away from the distraction that is Harry’s body, he looks up at Harry’s face to see him watching with a smirk on his lips. That arsehole did that on purpose, just to get a rise out of Louis.

“Fuck you,” Louis says, turning on his heel to head into the locker room. 

Before he’s even able to take one step in that direction, he feels large hands on either side of his hips and he’s being pulled flush against Harry’s chest, the dampness of the water still lingering on Harry’s skin soaking into Louis shirt. The puff of Harry’s breath against the shell of Louis’s ear makes the hairs on his neck stand on end. “You already have,” Harry whispers.

Louis gasps, scandalized, ignoring the thrill that runs through him at the sensual roughness of Harry’s voice. Technically, that is true, but they don’t talk about it. Just because they’re sort of _friends_ now doesn’t change that. 

The heat radiating off of Harry’s body is making Louis’ head a little fuzzy. He needs to get out of this situation quickly before he does something in front of all these people here at the gym as witnesses that he’ll regret. He elbows Harry in the stomach, finding nothing but hard, delicious muscle that he’d love to run his tongue over. He shakes his head to clear away that thought because now is not the time or place and he scurries into the locker room.

An attendant hands them both a fresh towel as soon as they walk in—because it’s _that_ kind of place—and Louis uses it to wipe the sweat from his face. He forgoes a shower because even though everything this gym has to offer so far is incredible and he’s sure the showers are just the same, he’d rather just take one at home. 

He grabs his things from the locker he checked out when they first arrived and resets the code on the lock. He double checks that he has everything before closing the locker door and walking back to the entrance to meet Harry.

Just as he’s turning around he bumps right into someone and feels something drop to the floor at his feet. “Oh,” Louis says, bending down to pick up what looks like a wallet. “I’m so sorry.”

He stands upright and sees a fairly well built older man looming over him with dark narrowed eyes. Louis hands him the wallet that he drops and the man snatches it out of Louis’ grip.

“Watch where you’re going, prick,” he snaps, storming around Louis to a locker just a few down from the one Louis used.

Louis watches him for a second, something about their interaction not sitting right with him. He meets up with Harry at the entrance to the locker room and tells him about what just happened. Harry says he’s overreacting and to forget about it, the man is probably just having a bad day, but Louis can feel deep in his bones that there’s more to it than that.

It doesn’t take much convincing to get Harry to stop at the juice bar before they leave just so Louis can watch the man from the locker room for a bit. He sits at a table while Harry orders and watches the entrance attentively. 

Harry returns shortly and plops some awful green juice on the table in front of him. Louis takes a sip but doesn't even taste it because the man he bumped into finally comes out of the locker room, that same scowl from earlier still on his face. 

Almost immediately, Louis notices the way he acts around women. He rolls his eyes at them and doesn’t have the patience to even listen to anything they’re saying. He’s your basic misogynistic arsehole. He’s definitely worth looking into.

He tells Harry to keep an eye on their maybe possible suspect so he can run back to the locker room to see if he can find any information on him. Louis swiftly walks right up to the locker he saw the man use and, luckily, it’s still unlocked. He must be a little more trusting with men than with women. Louis takes out the wallet he dropped when they ran into each other and checks his ID for a name. _Simon Cowell_. He snaps a picture of it with his phone just in case and hightails it out of there before he gets caught.

He grabs Harry on the way out, leaving behind his green juice which was probably disgusting anyway, and heads straight to the station. Originally Louis planned on going home after the gym to catch up on some very well deserved rest, but with this newfound information, there is no time for silly things such as showering and sleep.

They march right into Mitch’s office, startling him while he’s eating his lunch, and Louis tells him they need as much information as possible on this Simon character. Harry slides up right next to Mitch in a spare rolly chair and takes a bite right out of his sandwich. Mitch doesn’t even bat an eye, just hands his sandwich over to Harry and gets to work. 

All the information Mitch is able to find on Simon is _immensely_ helpful. His father died before he was born and his mother abandoned him when he was just a few years old. He was bounced around from foster home to foster him until he was eighteen and able to live on his own. Each of the foster homes he lived in didn’t last very long because he never got along with his foster mother. He was married for a very brief amount of time at a very young age, but his wife quickly divorced him after he repeatedly physically abused her and she now has a restraining order against him. He was fired from his last job after threatening one of his female coworkers.

It’s obvious that Simon hates women and he’d easily feel threatened by a woman that is more successful than he is. Louis is _convinced_ that he is their guy, now they just need to prove it.

\--

After even more serious digging, Mitch is able to find out Simon’s schedule and when he most likely frequents the gym. Harry and Louis make sure to be there at the same time as him so they can watch him. It doesn’t take them very long at all until they think they’ve figured out which woman is going to be his next victim. Simon has been following her around the whole time he’s been here and has even struck up a conversation with her a few times. It’s obvious that she’s uncomfortable around him and is only giving him the time of day to be nice.

Just the sight of Simon makes Louis’ blood boil. It takes everything in him not to whip out his handcuff and arrest the guy just for being an arsehole. How can he hate women? Women are wonderful and the world would have gone to shit without them. The majority of Louis’ favorite people in the world are women. 

Harry sends a sneaky picture he took of the women Simon has set his sights on to Mitch so he can run some facial recognition on her. Only a few minutes later, Harry’s phone is dinging with their response. They have her name, her age, her home address, and her work address. She’s a child psychiatrist, which is a definite possibility if their theory about Simon going after successful women is correct.

They’re running out of time and that know that tonight is the night Simon is going to take her if he sticks to his usual schedule since all the other victims were reported missing four days before their bodies were found. They need to act fast.

It’s later that night when they’re waiting outside of Heather’s—the woman from the gym that they suspect is the next victim—office building. They found out she was working late and now Harry and Louis are parked down the block waiting for Simon to make his move.

They’ve been waiting for over an hour now and Louis is getting restless. He’s almost convinced himself that they have the wrong girl, that nothing is going to happen when he sees movement from across the street. He looks up just in time to see Simon step into the light from one of the lampposts and this it. It’s go time.

He nudges Harry to get his attention and then they’re getting out of the car as quietly as possible and approach him slowly. They stick to the shadows so Simon doesn’t seem them coming. When they’re only a few feet away, Louis announces themselves.

“Simon Cowell,” he calls out. “Police, don’t move!”

Of course, Simon does move and he takes off running down the street. Louis curses under his breath as he breaks into a run to chase after him, hearing Harry do the same right behind him. He sees Simon round the corner into an alleyway and Louis follows.

He didn’t even notice that Simon had a gun until he sees him standing in the middle of the alley with it pointed directly at Louis. Louis freezes, his hand moving down to his own gun on his hip. As soon as he pulls it out of the holster, Simon shoots and takes off running again.

Louis feels the _whoosh_ of air against his neck as the bullet whizzes by. It was _that_ fucking close. He lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding when he realizes how lucky he is to come out of that unscathed. He’s just about to follow after Simon when he hears a gasp followed by a thud from behind him.

He whirls around to find Harry on the ground, one hand clutching at his shoulder, and blood seeping in between his fingers. Louis’ heart drops to his stomach.

He rushes to Harry’s and falls to his knees, reaching out to place his hand on top of Harry’s to apply pressure to the wound to try and stop some of the bleeding.

“I’m fine,” Harry says, but Louis can tell he’s lying because he winces when Louis presses down against his hand.

“You’re not fucking fine, Harry. You’ve just been shot,” Louis chastises. Harry can be so damn stubborn sometimes. 

“Really, it’s okay. It doesn’t even hurt that much,” Harry lies again. Louis can see the pain clearly written all over his face. “I can call for some backup and an ambulance myself. You need to go after Simon, do not let that bastard get away.”

Louis feels _something_ burning behind his eyelids that he knows cannot possibly be tears because he’s not getting choked up about this. All these weird feelings are flooding towards him and he doesn’t understand why he’s so upset about Harry getting shot. Deep down he thinks he knows, way, _way_ deep down, but he’s terrified to even think those thoughts so he pushes all that away and just focuses on Harry instead. “No way, I’m not leaving you.”

Harry uses his pinkie on the hand that is underneath Louis’ to gently stroke Louis’ palm as best as he can. “Louis, I’m going to be fine. I still have my gun and I’m still able to walk so I’ll go back to the car and wait for the ambulance there,” Harry says very calmly for someone who is bleeding out on the pavement. “You need to go.”

Louis’ conflicted. He doesn’t want to leave Harry’s side, he wants to be here for him, but he also doesn’t want to catch Simon _without_ Harry. He knows he needs to though and he knows Harry will be upset with him if he doesn’t so he relents.

Quickly, before he’s able to change his mind, Louis does something drastic. He knows Harry will tease and question him about it later, but at the moment he couldn’t care less. He leans forward and presses his lips against Harry’s. 

It’s soft and barely lasts a few seconds, but Louis hopes he was able to convey all the confusing thoughts floating around his head through that kiss. Judging by the cheesy grin on Harry’s face when he pulls back, he assumes Harry understood.

“Don’t you dare die on me, Styles,” Louis says.

Harry chuckles but immediately stops and grits his teeth when his shoulder shakes with it. “I won’t die, promise. You run along now and catch the bad guy.”

Louis smiles and gives Harry another kiss before he’s running back down the alley. He’s sure that Simon has gotten far away by now and there’s no hope of finding him. 

He comes to the end of the alleyway and stops. It branches off the left and the right but he has no clue which way Simon could have gone. He looks both ways as he contemplates but ultimately decides on going right. 

That must have been the right way because shortly after he’s turned, something hard crashes into him and knocks him to the ground. It takes him a second to realize that it’s Simon, he must have been hiding somewhere and waiting. 

Simon is bigger and heavier and crouching just to the right of Louis, leaning over him and holding Louis’ arms down, pinning him to the ground. Louis is slight and quick and he’s able to use his body weight to roll his hips to the side and swing his legs up and over to and knock Simon off balance. He stumbles back, stunned, and Louis quickly grabs him and flips them around so he’s now the one pinning Simon to the ground. Louis’ got Simon’s chest pressed into the pavement and Simon groans out in pain when Louis shoves a knee into his back to hold him down. 

Louis hears sirens approaching as he’s handcuffing Simon’s hands together, Harry must have been able to call for that ambulance and hopefully for some backup as well. He pulls Simon up to his feet and walks him back out to where he left his car.

There’s a squad car waiting at the kerb when they make it back to the main road and Louis shoves Simon into the back of it. He looks around for the ambulance so he can check on Harry but it’s nowhere in sight and neither is Harry.

\--

Of course, the chief gives them another good chewing out for going after Simon without backup and without their bulletproof vests on. To make matters worse, he does it while they’re in the hospital. At least he has the decency to pull Louis aside into an empty waiting room.

“I didn’t know he had a gun on him,” Louis explains, trying to defend himself.

“You know you don't actually have to _see_ the gun to put your vest on,” the chief sighs. “You’re chasing down a man who has murdered multiple people, you know he’s dangerous.” 

Louis nods, feeling dejected. He knows he’s fucked up yet again.

“Look, you made a mistake. You aren’t my first men to run off without a vest. I’m just happy that Harry is okay and Simon is going to be locked away for good,” the chief says. “I’ll get out of your hair now so you can go see Harry. Take as much time as you need.” He gives Louis a knowing smile before he’s disappearing through the doors of the waiting room.

Louis takes a deep breath and then makes his way down the hallway to Harry’s room. Harry was taken away in the ambulance as soon as it arrived on the scene last night and went straight into surgery. The surgery took several hours and Louis anxiously waited in the waiting room the whole time. The doctor filled Louis in on everything afterward. The bullet was removed cleanly from Harry’s shoulder and there wasn’t any further internal damage. Harry should recover just fine. Louis felt like he could finally breathe for the first time after hearing that news.

He hasn’t seen Harry since last night, he’s been sleeping ever since he got out of surgery and Louis didn’t want to risk waking him up. Louis spent the night in an uncomfortable chair in the waiting room, too worried to get very much sleep. Shortly before the chief came in, Harry’s nurse informed Louis that Harry was awake and he could go in to see him whenever he was ready.

The door to Harry’s room is open and Louis pauses just outside before going in. The nurse in the room, checking on one of the monitors by Harry’s bed, smiling at something that Harry just said to her. When Louis steps inside Harry lifts his head and smiles. His eyes are bright, his dimple popping into his cheek, all of his teeth on display from how wide his grin is.

“Hey,” Harry greets softly.

“Hey,” Louis says. “So your nurse told me that unfortunately, you’re going to be okay.”

Louis hears the nurse laugh at that and Harry pouts. “She didn’t say that. I’m her favourite patient, aren’t I?”

She laughs again and she reaches behind Harry to fluff up his pillows. “Yes, you are.”

“Mhm,” Louis hums. “And I’m sure you say that to all your patients, don’t you?”

She looks conflicted for a second, her eyes flicking to Harry before looking back at Louis. “Well, yes, but Harry really is one of my favourites. He’s very charming.”

“Charming is just a nicer way to say pain in the arse,” Louis says, laughing at the shocked look on Harry’s face.

“Don’t be mean to me,” Harry juts out his bottom lip in a pout. “I’m in the hospital.”

The nurse gets called out to help with another patient and then it’s just the two of them.

“Honestly though,” Louis says, stepping up next to Harry’s bed. “I’m really glad you’re okay. She said you should be able to go home in a couple of days.”

“Yeah,” Harry grins. “I have to come back to do about seven to ten days of physical therapy just to get my shoulder and arm back in tip-top shape and then I’ll be good as new.”

Louis smiles and is just about to reply when his phone buzzes in his pocket. He pulls it out and frowns down at the screen. “Shit, I completely forgot that I was meeting my sister for lunch today. I can reschedule it if you need me here.”

“What, no,” Harry says, reaching out to smooth the frown lines on Louis’ face. “You go have lunch with your sister, I’ll be fine. Bring me back some leftover though, hospital food is terrible.”

Louis guides Harry’s hand to his mouth and places a soft kiss on his palm before rushing out to meet his sister.

\--

He meets Lottie at a little Italian restaurant not far from the hospital. She’s finally back in town for longer than a day and Louis is glad he has a chance to see her. Her home base is in London, but she travels so much with her job as a makeup artist that she’s hardly ever in the same continent let alone city. 

They fill each other in on everything they’ve missed in each other’s lives since they last time they saw each other. It’s really nice getting to see her. He forgets just how much he’s missed her until he sees her again. 

“So what’s his name?” Lottie asks when they’re about halfway through their meal.

Louis scrunches his face in confusion. “What’s whose name?”

“The guy you’re in love with,” Lottie says casually like she’s just commenting on the weather. “What’s his name?”

Louis’ eyes go wide and he nearly chokes on his pasta. He’s only ever mentioned Harry to Lottie maybe a couple times and he only ever said that Harry was his new partner that drove him crazy. He never once mentioned his name. It wasn’t until after Harry was shot and Louis realized there was a chance that maybe he wouldn’t ever be able to see Harry again, that he finally figured out what all those weird feelings he was getting meant. That was only last night, so how in the world does Lottie already know? “What? I’m not. I’m—what?” 

Lottie just chuckles but doesn’t say anything like she expects Louis will just tell her the answer. Since Lottie has him cornered, he knows there’s no way to get out of this so he might as well tell her.

“Harry,” Louis says, not even bothering to fight the smile that spreads across his face at just the thought of him. “His name is Harry.”

Lottie nods, taking a sip of her water. “Tell me about him.” 

“I will, but only if you tell me how the fuck you knew that when I only just recently figured it out for myself.” 

“You’re glowing,” Lottie explains. “And you’re happy, like genuinely happy. I haven’t ever seen you like this. It got pretty close when you were dating that one guy back in uni, but never like this. So it must be real this time. He must be really important to you.” 

“He is,” Louis grins again. 

“So tell me about him,” Lottie repeats.

“He’s my new partner,” Louis says, suddenly very interested in his pasta.

“Your partner?” Lottie asks, shocked. “You mean the one you called me multiple times to complain about? That partner?”

“Yeah,” Louis shrugs. “I guess he grew on me.”

Louis tells Lottie more about him. About how selfless and caring he is, how he’s one of the most genuinely funny people he’s ever met. Although, he’d never admit that to Harry because he likes to tease and poke fun at him. He tells Lottie about how amazing Harry is at his job, and that Louis definitely wouldn’t have been able to solve this case without him. He also tells her about what happened last night and that Harry is still in the hospital right now. 

“What?” Lottie gasps. “What the hell are you doing here then if your boy is still in the hospital?” 

Louis absolutely does not get a little thrill about Lottie calling Harry _his boy_. “It’s fine, Lots. I just saw him this morning before coming to meet you.”

She rushes him out anyway, calling out to their waiter for the cheque. She pays for their meal despite Louis’ protests. She just waves him off saying that she can afford to take her brother out to lunch every once in a while.

They hug goodbye outside of the restaurant and Lottie tells him how happy she is for him that he’s found someone. Louis walks back to the hospital with a smile and a box full of leftovers for Harry.

\--

It’s a few days later and Harry’s finally been released from the hospital. He whines and complains about being pushed out in a wheelchair, saying that he was shot in the shoulder not the leg and he’s perfectly capable of walking. Louis doesn’t say anything, just lets Harry whinge, because he knows that Harry is secretly enjoying it.

It isn’t until Louis is pulling into the parking garage at his building that Harry realizes that Louis didn’t take him home.

“What are we doing at your place?” Harry asks, clearly confused.

Louis suddenly feels very nervous. He should have thought this through a bit more. “I just thought we could hang out here for a bit. I can take you home though if you want. If you’d rather be at your place. I understand if you—”

“No,” Harry interjects, reaching out for Louis’ hand so he can intertwine their fingers. “Hanging out here sounds perfect.”

He gets Harry situated in his bed because the nurse said he needs to take it easy and rest until he has to go back in for his physical therapy. He leaves Harry be and walks into his kitchen, taking two mugs out of the cabinet so he can make them some tea. 

His hands are shaking as he pours the water from the kettle into the mugs. He mentally psychs himself up for what he’s about to do and he feels more nervous than anything. Once he’s finished making their tea, he takes a deep breath and heads back to his bedroom.

Harry is propped up against a pile of pillows, scrolling through Netflix on the telly when Louis enters the room. He hands Harry his tea before climbing into bed on Harry’s other side. 

“Thank you,” Harry says, blowing on the surface of his tea. “I thought we could watch a movie or something. Or—” he frowns when he turns to face Louis. “Or not. You look a little pale, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just—” Louis swallows, steeling himself. “I want to talk to you about something if that’s okay.”

Harry nods and uses the remote control to turn off the television. “Of course, you can talk to me about anything.”

Louis leans back against the headboard and pulls his knees up to his chest. “You getting shot scared me, scared me a lot more than I’d like to admit. It forced me to think about not ever getting to see you again and I didn’t like the thought of that. I _really_ didn’t like the thought of that.” He wraps his arms around his knees, too afraid to look up at Harry to see his reaction. “I got all these weird feelings and thoughts in my head seeing you like that and I was terrified of what they meant because I knew they meant that I’m in love with you.”

He hears Harry gaps from beside him but he ignores it and continues you. “I know I’ve treated you like shit in the past and I’m so sorry for that. I don’t know how I’ll be able to make it up to you, but I want to try.”

Harry pulls Louis’ arm away from where it’s still wrapped around his knees and tugs Louis’ against his side, softly kissing his temple. “I love you too.”

“You do?” Louis asks, feeling shy all of a sudden.

“Oh, don’t act like that,” Harry says. “You _know_ I do. I never got over you, Louis. I never allowed myself to because I knew you would catch up eventually.”

Louis has a retort on the tip of his tongue but before he has the chance to say it, Harry is leaning in to capture his lips with his own. Louis has kissed Harry several times by now, but it’s still never enough. Their lips slide against each other’s easily and Louis melts into it.

They kiss for a while, Louis somehow ending up on top of Harry lying in between his spread thighs. One of the hands Harry has on Louis’ hip slides around to his back and dips underneath the waistband of Louis’ trackies. He grabs a handful of Louis’ arse over his boxer briefs. 

Louis breaks the kiss and it takes everything in him not to just dive back in because Harry looks so fucked out already, his lips red and shiny “Harry, no. You literally just left the hospital like an hour ago. We aren’t doing this. I don’t want to hurt you or rip out your stitches or anything.” 

“I’ll be fine as long as I don’t move my shoulder around too much,” Harry pouts. Like he’s _actually_ fucking pouting right now. “I was in the hospital for almost a week; my dick hasn’t seen the light of day since then. It’s feeling very neglected, it’s missed you. 

Louis snorts into Harry’s good shoulder. “You’re ridiculous. You go a few days without any action and you’re crying about it.”

“Well, can you blame me?” Harry asks. “I have someone as hot as you as my boyfriend, it’s kind of hard for me to control myself.”

If Louis thought the thrill he got from Lottie calling Harry his boy was big, it’s nothing compared to the one he has right now. He hides his smile in Harry’s chest and nips at his skin through his shirt with his teeth.

“But really,” Harry continues. “Can you do _something_? Like a hand job or something quick and easy like that. I’m literally dying here.”

Louis rolls his eyes, Harry is so overly dramatic. He sits back so he can think and an idea pops into his head pretty quickly. “How about you just lie there like you are right now and I ride you?”

Harry’s eyes widen and he nearly chokes. “Yeah, yes. Let’s do that. That sounds great.”

Louis laughs at Harry’s reaction as he climbs off the bed so he can undress. After his clothes are in a pile on the floor, he riffles through the drawer in his bedside for the supplies he’ll need. He drops them on the bed and then helps Harry remove his clothes because it’s a little hard for him to do it himself with only one arm.

He hops back onto the bed and plants himself on top of Harry’s thighs. He takes the bottle of lube he pulled out from his drawer and drizzles some onto his fingers. He reaches behind him and runs his slick fingertips over his hole.

“Wait,” Harry says, drawing Louis’ attention back to him. “You’re not going to let me do that?”

“Absolutely not,” Louis responds, groaning when he sinks a finger inside himself. “I don’t want you to strain your shoulder even more.”

Harry whines about it when Louis continues to prep himself. He works up to three fingers fairly quickly, the stretch burning but in the best way. He’s never been a big fan of doing this himself because he always gets tired of holding his arm at such an awkward angle. He gasps, his eyes flying open and he falls against Harry’s chest when his fingers brush over that bundle of nerves inside of him.

“Jesus, Lou,” Harry says, his voice raspy. “It’s killing me not be able to prep you myself, but you look so good like this.” He rubs his hands over Louis’ back and moves his mouth to Louis’ ear so he can whisper. “When I’m fully healed, you better believe that I’m going to finger you open for hours until you’re a crying mess and don’t even remember your own name.”

Louis whimpers at the thought of that as he slips his fingers out of his hole. He sits back up straight and grabs the condom from where he placed it earlier and rips it open with his teeth. He slides it down over Harry’s cock and squeezes some more lube into his hand to slick Harry up with.

He rises up on his knees and shuffles forward until he can line Harry’s cock up just right. Harry’s staring at him intently and Louis locks his gaze on Harry’s as he slowly starts to sink down. He has to squeeze his eyes shut and stop for a moment once the head pops in because it’s a lot. He knew Harry was big, but he feels about ten times bigger than he looks and he’s stretching Louis out so much that he can’t _breathe_.

Biting his lip, Louis beings to sink down all the way and finally seats himself fully in Harry’s lap, his cock buried deep inside him. Slowly, once the burn of the stretch starts to fade, Louis raises his hips. The drag feels _glorious_ , Harry’s cock rubbing him in all the right ways.

Once he’s used to the feeling of having Harry inside him, Louis starts to bounce on Harry’s cock, riding him in earnest. The sounds that fall from Harry’s lips when Louis comes down hard are _beautiful_ , like music to Louis’ ears. 

It doesn’t take long for Louis’ thighs to ache and his bounces to become sloppy and uncoordinated. Harry must notice that Louis is getting tired because he plants his feet flat on the mattress and fucks up in Louis at the same time that Louis sinks down. 

The angle of it is _perfect_ and the head of Harry’s cock hits Louis’ prostate dead on. Louis cries out, his eyes flying open and his head falling back onto his shoulders. Harry does the same thing again and again and Louis feels himself hurtling towards the edge.

Louis yelps in surprise when Harry takes ahold of his cock, tugging hard and fast. It only takes a few seconds of that for Louis to come with a shout, spilling into Harry’s fist. He collapses against Harry’s chest, his whole body shaking from the intensity of his orgasm. Harry’s hips still as he comes only moments after Louis.

They’re sweaty and gross, Louis panting heavily into Harry’s neck as he comes down. Eventually, he’s able to move enough to lift his hips far enough for Harry’s cock to slip out.

“You’re amazing,” Harry praises, his arms wrapping around Louis’ waist. “I love you so much.”

Louis smiles as he rolls off of Harry, curling up against his side. “I love you too.” He presses the most gentle little kisses across Harry’s surgery scar on his shoulder.

He knows they should probably clean themselves up, but he feels his eyelids getting heavier and heavier and he’s happy and sated laying here with Harry. They can have a little snooze and then shower when they wake up because right now at this very moment, there is no other place Louis wants to be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m [ireallysawanangel](http://ireallysawanangel.tumblr.com) on tumblr, so come say hi!  
> [Here’s](http://ireallysawanangel.tumblr.com/post/176103753174) a little tumblr post you can reblog if you’d like!


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